Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! I am a UK volunteer with voluntary service overseas and I'll be living in Rwanda in a small town called Nzige. Nzige is in Rwamagana district to the east of the country towards Tanzania.I'll be going out to Rwanda as an education volunteer to work on UNICEF's child friendly schools campaign. by teaching in a teacher training college and setting up a resource centre.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

The wanderer returns

I am the nomad of vso Rwanda. I have seen more volunteer’s houses than I’ve had goat brochettes. I’ve shared a bed with more people than I can count on one hand (platonically!). I’ve even had a room in Mark and Tammy’s Kigali guesthouse named after me. But sometimes even I have to return to where I am actually supposed to be, if only to wash my clothes, have a lie down and pack my bag again. So why all this wandering one may ask?

Well the first reason is work. As the nearest TTC volunteer to KigaliI often go as the TTC representative to various vso meetings, I get called to brief conservative MPs on working in a TTC in Rwanda (yes they did really do this, although only briefly!), and as my nearest large town it is the closest place where I can buy supplies for the teaching resource centre.Unlike most TTC volunteers I can get there and back in a day so I don’t have to miss so much teaching time....but if my visit coincides with a weekend I seldom do rush back...because hanging about in Kigali is way too much fun. As an incredibly weak willed and ill disciplined person as soon as someone invites me out for a primus or dinner I’m there. I can get beer in the village but not without a certain amount of judgement and stain on my otherwise umblemished character...saint Muzungu.

The other main reason is that I just love to get out and about. While it is nice to stay still sometimes I don’t mind bus and moto journeys, you see so much of the countryside that way. There are so many beautiful places to visit in Rwanda. And while I do love my village as the only muzungu there it can feel isolating at times. I am used to my own company in the week but at the weekends its nice to be able to unwind with others, speak my language and have a good laugh. And now its the TTC hols Nzige won’t see much of my shiny white face, but the new term will start before I know it and I will hear cries of ‘muraho’ (basically meaning ‘we haven’t seen you in ages’) around the village.